I have battled ICH since I put my first fish in my reef tank. It has come and go, it has killed fish, I have had many fish live and out grow my nano reef tank. Once I had 2 clowns die and my prized yellow head jawfish die....I was so upset that I vowed to take the tank down and get out of the salt. After 5-6 weeks the owner of my LFS convienced me to give fish one more try so she gave me a very healthy, very active, very large (nearly 2-1/2") sgt. major damsel. He ruled my reef, well, him and my blood red shrimp for a month or so. I got the urge to add something, so i added 2 small orange skunk clowns and removed the damsel. Now, mind you both clowns were very healthy, eating, perfect coats and fins. I had watched them in a tank by themselves for a week or so at my LFS. I got them home, long acclimation, etc. 3 days later....ICH! I threw my hands up in the air and said I give up! one of the clowns actually died, but the other is still happy and doing well. after the first died, i decided to take a diet approach to the fight. i started to prepare my own food. i crushed and chopped San Francisco Bay Brand Marine Cuisine, a couple of cubes of frozen brine shrimp and hit that in the micro for a few seconds to melt it. added seachem garlic guard and a dab of a gel based penicillin. put that in the freezer, after it froze i cut it into feeding blocks. I also dose once weekly with seachem stress guard and each water change i add seachem stablity to my water after the change. sucess? who knows, but no ich for a while and my fish seem very alert and happy.
I just thought i would share my story because ich is one of those things that im sure will always be in my tank and will attack fish that are stressed or unhealthy. good thing is, i dont let it keep me up at night anymore. miracle liquids? nah, i used kick ich, rid ich, and one other i cant remember. i did fresh water dips, i did seachem paraguard dips. i have concluded that the dips probably stress out the fish more than help and in a weekened state they die. so whatever.
bottomline, after reading so many posts about ich i have come to the conclusion that everyone is wrong and everyone is right at the same time. because we all have different fish, tank sizes, water params, equipment, habitits, methods, handling procedures, transport methods, etc, etc. and what is PROVEN to work, absolutely, hands down will work in your tank just may not work in my tank. sorry but it just may not. it may, but it may not.
